Blog Post #5 Sonic Example

https://soundcloud.com/nypl/to-see-an-underground-show?in=nypl/sets/missing-sounds-of-new-york

Blogpost #5

Since the advent of this year’s pandemic, I have not commuted in trains yet. It is surreal to think that taking trains which has been a major part of my life in NYC has come to a complete halt. Our daily commute revolves around the sound produced during that commute hour. The sound of the train’s engine, the announcement being made on the platform and in the train were once a noise to me. I used to take refuge in my headphones where I direct my attention to songs and podcasts that I play on my device. After listening to and closely analyzing Krukowski’s podcast episode on Noise where he mentioned that signal is a sound that you are paying attention to and noise is the component of that sound which you are not paying attention to, I realized that the sound that I once used to consider a noise is slowly evolving into in a sound that I want to pay attention to. It feels different when the sound that I have once considered noise is slowly evolving to a signal that I am longing to hear. I am so used to hearing it every day that it has become a part of my life. This noise has actually been normalizing my daily life in New York. During this difficult and quiet time at home, the noise at subway platforms is what my ears are longing to hear. The compilation done by New York Public Library of daily sounds in NY has been particularly helpful. It takes me to my space where I was happy with my normal lifestyle. We didn’t have any fear of contracting any disease in any mass transit mode. So, this realization is applicable to Krukowski’s idea of sound being associated with space. A sound that can let you travel in time. So, when I return to my daily commute in trains, I think I will embrace those noises as a signal to my ears until it becomes bothersome again.

Discussion questiona5&6

Episode 5

  1. At the beginning of this episode, Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” What does he mean by this statement? He goes on to ask, “But might it [the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] not be a key to alternate approaches-to art, to society-to power itself?” (“Marginalized” is an adjective that describes a person, group, or concept that is treated as insignificant or peripheral.)

 

What is he trying to get at with this question? How does music indicate the differences between the powerful and the marginalized?

 

1: In the beginning of the episode when Kruwoski says” the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” He means that music isn’t being appreciated through CDs anymore. Everything is so advanced now that everyone downloads music instead of going to music store and buying it. The CDs and tapes are being less appreciated.

  1. How are the music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify?

 

2: Music listening experiences from the Forced Exposure are different from listening to Spotify because during the forced exposure listening moments  they had the opportunity to listen to all the music they could and if you wanted to contact the artist there would be a long wait. Fast forward to modern days with Spotify, you can have your music chosen for you. Spotify can direct you to music according to your mood, contacts etc. Spotify has a variety of music and there is no way you can listen to every song on Spotify.

  1. What distinctions does Krukowski draw between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” music? What are the differences between these experiences and according to Krukowski, why are they important?

 

3: When you hear new music you’ve never heard before you are surprised by the things that your hearing. When your surprised its nothing that you expected. On the other hand, when you’re discovering music your expecting what you’re looking for. This is important because you are using these tools to gain more of an understanding to music.

 

Episode 6

  1. According to Krukowski, what is noise? What is signal? Why are these distinctions important?

 

1: Krukowski describes noise as the thing we are listening to in the background. For an example when you’re listening to two things at one time one becomes the signal and one is the noise. The noise being the sound in the background and the signal being the sound that has your attention. Your brain is more focused on the signal while your listening to the noise but not so much.

  1. What central idea about noise does this episode convey? Why is it significant?

 

2: Noise and signal are important to our everyday life. You can hear up to millions of different signals and noises, noises are the sounds you hear in the background. Signal being the sound you’re hearing first and paying the most attention to. Producers and musicians make music with signal being louder sound then the noise.

 

  1. How does this episode relate to other episodes?

 

3:  Episode six was based on noise, which Krukowski described as the unwanted sound in the background.  The author uses podcast to explain to listeners the importance of each episode. Listening to different noises and signals is apart of our everyday life, the author wants us to understand sound noise and signals. Throughout the podcast we listened to him speak about listening and understanding music. Music has noises and signals and that’s how this episode relates to the others.

Blog post # 5

As a sonic example, I chose two records. One is from Queen’s live concert, and the second one is the studio record of the same song, the same band. As we have learned from the Krukowski’s podcasts, the sound and its perception are also affected by the space. Even if both of the video examples are kind of reproduction, I believe that the difference is clear. In a live concert, we can see people sharing and enjoying the moment together. Freddie Mercury is communicating with the audience and getting feedback from them, which is creating a breathtaking and magical ambiance. In the second record, we can hear the very same song much clearly, without any unwanted noises, perfectly understand all the words precisely, enjoy the listening of all the instruments. The studio recording is a much better quality of the music, technically speaking. Yet, people that are listening to the studio record can’t have the same, unforgettable experience full of emotions that are written down into their memory as the audience at the live concert had.

Queen – Love of My Life

Wembley, ’86.

No Title

No Description

Ways of Hearing Episodes 5 & 6

Krukowski boils down this concept very simply by saying that “even yesterday’s hits end up in the dollar bin eventually.” Popularity is fleeting and the powerful will stick to whatever is popular and making them money. Most physical copies of the top ten albums from this year will probably sell for a few dollars in 2050, unless physical copies of music become a collector’s item in the future. Krukowski believes that by going back and looking at things that have been forgotten, we can reuse and reinvent.

Forced Exposure has all of its employees listen to every track on every album they have. This makes the employees experts at helping customers. They are better equipped to introduce something the customer may never have heard before. At Spotify, they are trying to make a “magic music player that knows exactly what you want.” They want the customer to have a continuous flow of music that is similar to what they might like without having to ask.

When I was twelve my TV broke and was unable to show picture, with the exception of a thin line in the middle of the screen. Lucky for me, the TV had a radio setting and I could faintly tell which station it was on based on the think line. For the next few years, whenever I wanted to watch TV I would listen to the radio instead. I was exposed to so much more music then than I am now. I was forced to listen to songs full through or constantly switch stations until I found something I liked, but it vastly broadened my music taste. I love Spotify, but I get tired of listening to songs that fall into the same genre. I do “discover” new music that is similar to my tastes, but it makes it easy to fall into a pattern. I miss hearing something totally out of left field on the radio that I wouldn’t have found if the DJ hadn’t spun it.

Noise is sound in the background, sounds that “you’re not interested in” according to Krukowski’s doctor. Signal is the main sound, the sound “you’re trying to pay attention to.” These terms are the difference between sound that someone wants versus sounds that they don’t.

The point of this episode is to show the significance of noise. We all know the importance of signal, because it’s what we actively choose to focus on each day. Krukowski talks about the background conversation in the Beach Boys song, which I think enriches the song and makes it special. He also talks about how audio engineers concern themselves with removing noise from songs and focusing on the signal as much as they can. In this way, they are controlling what they want us to hear.

Krukowski relates this episode back to each one before it. The imperfections of “real” time add more to the signal than the lack of noise in machine time. Headphones allow everyone to control the signal no matter where they are. Digital transmission on cellphones treats the voice as signal and removes all noise, which in turn removes depth of meaning in phone conversations. Similar to the first episode of Ways of Seeing, streaming strips music of context. Context is noise and the music itself is signal. Finally, in a world where corporations are catering to the individual, they have made everyone a signal, trying not to leave anyone out.

 

DQ#7

Ways of Hearing

Discussion questions for episodes 5 & 6

Episode 5

  1. At the beginning of this episode, Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” What does he mean by this statement? He goes on to ask, “But might it [the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] not be a key to alternate approaches to art, to society-to power itself?” (“Marginalized” is an adjective that describes a person, group, or concept that is treated as insignificant or peripheral.)

What is he trying to get at with this question? How does music indicate the differences between the powerful and the marginalized?

-The music like Krukowski stated he goes to record store just to window shop even if he doesn’t find anything, he tends to consume knowledge every time he goes to the record store. He stated he goes to antic stores to find some rare old records and bands that they don’t have any use for.

2-How are the music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify?

-Enabled by Forced Exposure different from what pull Lamere is working on, They’re offering exposure for many records, knowing that Spotify is a platform to increase their records sales such as a digital copy of the record. Using Spotify as a marketing platform.

3-What distinctions does Krukowski draw between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” music? What are the differences between these experiences and according to Krukowski, why are they important? 

-According to the episode, Krukowski stated discovering new music can be surprising to many listeners, but people tend to get bored by listening to similar music. In this day and age, we tend to have the same music from the different artists by just different styles of their own.

Episode 6

  1. According to Krukowski, what is noise? What is a signal? Why are these distinctions important?
    -According to Krukowski noise is a signal to our ears that interests us, everything else besides the interest is basically noise that we hear daily. This distinction is important because it gives us interest and knowledge of what we want to hear.
  2. What central idea about noise does this episode convey? Why is it significant?
    – This episode conveys that every noise leads to an interest to a listener such as music or any noise that interesting to an individual.
  3. How does this episode relate to other episodes? 

-These episodes related to other episodes because the main topic is noise and digital technology that every human being is using, knowing that listening is really important as human beings.

Discussion question # 7

Episode 5

  1. At the beginning of this episode, Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” What does he mean by this statement? He goes on to ask, “But might it [the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] not be a key to alternate approaches-to art, to society-to power itself?” (“Marginalized” is an adjective that describes a person, group, or concept that is treated as insignificant or peripheral.)                                                                                                                      Krukowski mean by his statement the old records that left and no one is looking for it, so the powerful decide to ignore and leave behind and not even mention, the powerful here is the online big company that control the market and decide which is important and interesting and which to ignore and not even mention. Marginal records or the rejected records might be from our history and its important that we go back to our history to understand our future. culture without history like a car without wheels, they might be the key of changing many  approaches such as art, society and even the power itself through lifting them up fromthe shadows to the lights and from the ground to top of the mountains so then their good effort will be seen to everyone.                                                                                            
  2. How are the music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify?                                                                       You have to scroll through millions of songs with Forced Exposure to figure out what you want to be playing, but you just have to hit the play button at Paul Lamere ‘s platforms, like Spotify, and that’s the correct song for you, based on your contexts, your mood, where you are, or what you’re doing, without you having to think about it.                                   

3. What distinctions does Krukowski draw between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” music? What are the differences between these experiences and according to Krukowski, why are they important?

Being surprised in music means that you will hear something that you have never expect at all , but discovering in music means that you are looking for a specific type of music, and surprise is not the same as “discover.” Since a huge digital corporation, eager to engage every one of us and as much of our time as possible with their product, surprise is not really a helpful thing. Music recommendation services like

Spotify wants to give us the music we probably like. At least enough to let it keep on playing.Which is not something that sounds like nothing we’ve ever heard before. That could be the best thing we’ve ever heard. This is contradicts with Forced Exposure ,where you might have the worst experience ever in listening to music which you would click away from, before any ad tracker had the chance to tally your attention. Knowing this relation is very crucial to those music corporations in the world since they want to keep our attention — or at least, keeping us engaged inside their program, which is at the moment the goal of some of the most powerful corporations in the world. And through this goal, they are replacing the freedom and chaos of the internet at large, with the control and predictability of their programs.

Episode 6

1. According to Krukowski, what is noise? What is signal? Why are these distinctions important?

noise : it’s every-thing that you’re hearing, the background noise that you may not be paying attention to. signle is the sound that we want to hear among all other sounds which are noises.  the different between them are important to understand because In a recording studio, microphones open up a rich field of sound, just as Dr. Quesnel describes for our ears. But instead of our brain, it’s then up to an audio engineer to decide what in that is signal, and what is noise—maximizing one, and minimizing the other.

2. What central idea about noise does this episode convey? Why is it significant? 

the main idea in this episode is about signle and noise and how is important in a recording studio to maximizing the sound wich is the signle and minimizing the noise so the when we hear the music or the new record we can hear the signle clear and the sound smooth and there will be no noise.

3. How does this episode relate to other episodes?

ways oh hearing is about how digital devices and technology changed our live and change           from using analog to using digital in music industry. technlogh has made a revolution in music and made recording look very easy and way better comparing to analog ways. so noise and signle episode is related to the other episode because its the step that make sounds clear and audio engineering using technology to cut as mush noise from the signle so they make a record very clear and pure.

Sonic example 2

While I was going through my Instagram I had the chance to watch a video of a couple dancing at the beach with nobody around, it was possible to only see the couple, the sea and the sand. It starts with a video without any sounds, however the person who edited that adds a song which gave to the video a new meaning, connection and sensitivity for the watchers. Being able to add feelings through sounds is powerful. What before was only two people dancing at the beach now becoming an old couple celebrating the story together. The video has a slow beat and it had less than 1 minute of duration, but once the music became part of the message it was possible to identify the signal and noise and how both together in that context got a full significant meaning. Watching that video it was still possible to visualize the process of transforming something that already existed to turn it into something even better. The music is a calm piano melody and it’s playing over that video it turns the music romantic based on the new context.

Blog Post #6

New York-The sounds of a city in lockdown

The sounds of New York City are usually loud and honking. But with commerce and regular life virtually shut down amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the city that never sleeps is uncharacteristically quiet. Listen.

On January 13, 2020, I gave birth to my fourth child. That day, I heard the first sounds of my daughter crying and I was very happy. In those moments, I had no idea that 2020 would be the most difficult year for me, my family and for many people on our planet. Exactly two months later, we were forced to isolate due to the coronavirus pandemic and the streets of New York became empty. I would like to share with you a short video “New York-The sounds of a city in lockdown” sourced from the China Global Television Network (“CGTN”) YouTube channel. During the moments of self-isolation, I did not have the opportunity to see and hear New York such calm and unhurried as it was in the first days of quarantine. According to Krukowski’s podcast in Noise and Signal, the author explains the concepts of noise and signals. Three months ago, New York was quiet, just rare signals through the noiseless city of ambulances passing by, birdsong, a lonely street musician playing alone, the rattling of chains on the fences of city playgrounds and daily evening applause for the first responders. For New York, these were silent but mournful days. Hopefully, in the near future, we will be able again to fully hear the noisy, hasty and lovely New York. As Ella Fitzgerald sings in the song “Manhattan”, “We’ll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy.”

Manhattan

Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group Manhattan · Ella Fitzgerald Essential Ella ℗ 1956 UMG Recordings, Inc. Released on: 1994-10-01 Producer: Norman Granz Studio Personnel, Engineer: Alan Emig Associated Performer, Vocals: Ella Fitzgerald Conductor, Associated Performer, Recording Arranger: Buddy Bregman Orchestra: Buddy Bregman Orchestra Composer Lyricist: Richard Rodgers Composer Lyricist: Lorenz Hart Auto-generated by YouTube.

Discussion 7

  1. At the beginning of this episode, Krukowski asserts, “the marginal-the rejected-the repressed-is whatever the powerful have decided is of no use at the moment.” What does he mean by this statement? He goes on to ask, “But might it [the marginal-the rejected-the repressed] not be a key to alternate approaches-to art, to society-to power itself?” (“Marginalized” is an adjective that describes a person, group, or concept that is treated as insignificant or peripheral.)

What is he trying to get at with this question? How does music indicate the differences between the powerful and the marginalized?

Everything can be transformed, and after some work on that it can even be seen as something powerful. What we call marginalized at some point can become something significant for yourself or society once it gets the attention from someone else. He inquires if the forgotten/counter culture can build itself up into its own society and culture

2. How are the music listening experiences enabled by Forced Exposure different from those that Paul Lamere is working on with platforms like Spotify?

Digital Companies such as Spotify, Apple music and Pandora have music recommendations done by computers using algoritmos through social recommendation, acoustic similarity and cultural recommendations. The difference is that the forced exposure is listForced Expose can have a human give you a personalized recommendation because they listened to the music themselves.

3. What distinctions does Krukowski draw between being “surprised” by music and “discovering” music? What are the differences between these experiences and according to Krukowski, why are they important?
Surprise is not always a good thing, we want to find things that we are comfortable with that way Krukowski points out that we are not discovering new things. These programs are giving us what we are looking for based on our music recommendations.

4. According to Krukowski, what is noise? What is signal? Why are these distinctions important?
Signal is the message without interference understanding the sounds, in other words signal is where we want to put our attention in. On the other hand, noises are sounds that we are not interested in.

5. What central idea about noise does this episode convey? Why is it significant?
Noises are sounds that we are not interested in, everything is noise until the point we identify a signal we are interested in. We can never completely delete the noise.

6. How does this episode relate to other episodes?
The importance of combining different sounds creating a significant signal. Krukowski uses the noise concept to relate all the episodes. Concluding that every sound is composed of noises and important it is.

Discussion questions # 7

Episode 5

Question # 1:
I believe Krukowski wanted to point out that we are naturally affected by music, but the question is if the choice of music is also natural. Big companies like Amazon, Google, Spotify, or other online music servers, serve us all sources of information irresponsibly and are using cookies or other practices to provide or unobtrusively intrude to us the music they wanted to based on whatever is currently most popular or seemingly wanted. That is why are some bands or records pushed aside – marginalized. Then the choice of music we listen to is often affected and not natural. Walking into some store with music doesn’t have to be than just snobbish habits of nowadays, but also our diligence in getting the natural and responsible flow of information and so to form our personalities and opinions.

Question # 2:
Forced Exposure means listening to the opinion of those who listened to all of the available records and wrote about them. People picked what they wanted to listen to based on this information. In contrast, Spotify is choosing for us a source of music based on our listening history by using the algorithms.

Question # 3:
There are algorithms on the internet that are helping us to find precisely what we are looking for. That means no surprises. Spotify is offering the music based on our taste and definitely won’t surprise us with some new kind of music that is not resonating with our current listening history. It is crucial to be aware of that because even Spotify is an efficient tool, it can impoverish our discoveries or experiences. Discovering music can, on the other hand, be very surprising and bring us something new, unexpected, and exciting.

Episode 6

Question # 1:
The signal is one part of the sound on which is our hearing apparatus concentrating at the specific moment the most. Noise is considered all the other sounds going on around, which we don’t care about at the moment. These sounds can be manipulated in the recording studio, by removing all the unwanted noises and adding loudness to these that are chosen as the signal.

Question # 2:
Even the sound considered as noise can be essential in order to get the right impression from music. Manipulation of the sounds in the record studios can be very beneficial to us to listen to the noises of music clearly and as a part of the production.

Question # 3:
In all the episodes, including the one about the noise, are finding out what impact has the digital technologies on our hearing, sensing of sounds and music, and also its impact on our society. Digital technologies are adjusting the sound we are receiving or helping us to avoid what we don’t want to listen at all. Our perception of sound is changed and much less natural. The episodes are exploring these differences and the questions if it is a good or bad thing. We might get more clear sound, but in the end, the digitalized music is already some kind of reproduction, and in my opinion, it will never be the same as the live experience. Also, from all of the episodes, I got the expression that digital and modern technologies are dividing us from each other and creating more distance.